Many office environments dedicate a number of offices and their associated personal computers and telephone devices for visiting or telecommuting staff. Desk sharing (also known as office sharing or real estate/resource hoteling) facilitates the temporary allocation of a limited number of shared resources to a greater number of users. Desk sharing is particularly suitable for office environments where employees work multiple shifts, or where office personnel tend to move between multiple locations.
Desk sharing involves reserving a particular office space for a specific time period. A desk sharing application is a software program, typically incorporating a graphic user interface (GUI), that is used to view shared office spaces and their associated devices and to allow authorized users to reserve these office spaces and resources. Authorized users can select and reserve a shared office and its associated resources from the set of available resources, for a specified period of time. At the end of the desk sharing period, the resource is released and therefore becomes ready to be reserved and allocated by a different user.
Desk sharing applications may be used to reserve a physical location along with the computing and telephonic resources associated with that location. When sharing personal computers (PC) or workstations, the user gains full access to the company computing resources, email and Internet services as a result of logging in to the Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) from any shared and connected workstation. Furthermore, PC users maintain their own customized setting as a result of the system automatically downloading their profile to the utilized workstation upon logging in to the network. The utilization of the user's standard profile while using the shared workstation allows that user to retain the preferred work environment, and consequently improve overall efficiency.
In telephonic networks, each Enterprise Communication Platform (ECP) node typically comprises a Private Branch Exchange (PBX), an administrative terminal and a plurality of dedicated and shared telephone devices. The various components of the ECP node are inter-connected using a number of standard or proprietary interfaces. In these telephonic networks, a device feature transfer exists that allows a user to transfer the user's default (home or dedicated) device features to another shared device within the same ECP node. Such feature transfer is typically accomplished by initiating a dialup modem or TCP-IP connection to the ECP administrator terminal in order to access the ECP administrative libraries (databases) and execute the autoset relocate function.
The autoset relocate feature is an ECP feature offered by Siemens, the assignee hereof, that is known to allow telephone users to retain their telephone configuration automatically after moving to different locations within the same ECP. This ECP feature allows telephone users to move their phone features as needed, without the need for re-plugging or re-jumpering at the main distribution frame and reconfiguring the phone via Administration and Maintenance Order (AMO) commands. The autoset relocate function is typically initiated and completed by means of a user-guided dial-up procedure with acknowledgement tones (or telephone display instructions where available). Authorized users may sign-off their telephones via a dial up procedure using a suitable telephone in the system or via the service terminal (using AMO commands). Subsequently, users can sign-on at the new location via a dial up procedure or via the service terminal (using AMO commands). As a result of using the autoset relocate feature, the user's class of service, group memberships and activated telephone features remain unchanged after the relocation.
However, the autoset relocate feature (which is originally intended for users relocating their telephone devices for an extended period of time) is not integrated with the desk sharing application. Furthermore, the execution of the autoset relocate function in the prior art requires the user or administrator to execute the necessary AMO commands.
The prior art system, however, has several limitations. In particular, because the autoset relocate function is not integrated with desk sharing application, the user is required to perform office space reservation using a desk sharing application separately from the telephonic feature transfer that is accomplished via the autoset relocate task. Additionally, deletion of or otherwise resetting a prior user's configured features from the shared device might be necessary in the prior art system.
Alternatively, the user may choose to manually program the newly shared telephone device with the desired features. While manual configuration of shared telephone devices is an option, as more features are added to telephone devices the manual configuration task becomes more difficult and time consuming, e.g. to accommodate users who frequently use the shared device for only short periods of time. Furthermore, this option does not provide the advantages of integration with the desk sharing application.